Missouri law takes aim at scrap metal thieves, dealers

Monday

Sep 29, 2008 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2008 at 11:33 PM

Although Linn County Prosecutor Tracy Carlson understands that economic hard times will prompt a few people to steal metal for scrap, he has no intention of allowing that crime to go unpunished and wants local citizens to know that recent legislation now makes that kind of theft a felony.

Chris Houston

Although Linn County Prosecutor Tracy Carlson understands that economic hard times will prompt a few people to steal metal for scrap, he has no intention of allowing that crime to go unpunished and wants citizens to know that recent legislation now makes that kind of theft a felony.

Carlson warned Monday morning, “As times get tougher, we see more of this sort of thing, but we will make sure there is no tolerance for this kind of behavior.”

The Linn County Prosecutor further explained that as the dollar amount of scrap metal thefts might not have allowed him to charge someone with more than a misdemeanor in the past, there weren’t significant penalties for some of the people committing such crimes.

“Probation and Parole generally doesn’t supervise people convicted of misdemeanors,” Carlson explained, “so some of these folks got off without any consequence that would deter them in the future.”

In the past, thefts of metals like copper, brass bronze, and certain kinds of aluminum, iron and steel items had to exceed $500 in value before the charge could rise to a felony.

However, the recent passage of Missouri House Bill (HB) 1512 has raised the theft of metal for scrap of any value to a class C felony.

“Now for the first offense there’s a good chance someone we convict could get probation and for the second offense, they could go to prison,” Carlson said.

The penalty for a class C felony conviction can range anywhere from one day to one year in the county jail, to a fine of $5,000, to a maximum of seven years imprisonment. And the new law doesn’t let scrap metal dealers off the hook either.

The new legislation requires all purchasers of scrap metal to keep records on such sales, which will include a federally or state-issued form of photo ID, the date and time of the delivery, and the description and weight of all metals they purchase. Those records must be maintained for two years.

However, any purchase of scrap metal not exceeding $50 is exempt from the new record-keeping requirement. On the other hand, such transactions exceeding $50 require payment to be made by check.

The new law further prohibits scrap metal dealers from purchasing or possessing metal beer kegs and makes doing so a class A misdemeanor. Furthermore, scrap metal dealers are prohibited from buying a manhole cover from anyone other than the person authorized to sell it by the utility that owns it. Violation of the manhole cover theft purchase can carry a penalty range of a fine of $25 to $500 to imprisonment, 30 days to six months imprisonment, or both.

HB1512, which was sponsored by Sen. Rob Mayer and supported by Reps. Tom Todd, Billy P. Wright, Terry Swinger, and Steve Hodges, received additional support from various law enforcement agencies, AT&T, and the Missouri Farm Bureau.

The bill passed by a resounding 34 to 0 vote in the Missouri Senate and 142 to 1 in the Missouri House of Representatives.

Missouri is one of just a handful of states that have taken steps to make penalties for metal theft more meaningful.

The new law takes particular aim at thefts of infrastructure components such as wiring, electrical transformers, or metal pipes, but is not excluded to those items.

Major Dave Fifer of the Brookfield Police Department recalled a number of such thefts in Brookfield in recent years, including metal thefts from the old L.T. York building and the Southwestern Bell substation.